62 AH july 2018
With aerial refueling, record nonstop time aloft,
once measured in hours, was measured in days.
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale rec-
ognized endurance records for classes of aircraft
as well as world records that transcend all classes.
In 1929 the FAI also instituted a women’s class. But
for examples of sheer determination and willing-
ness to endure days and even weeks in the confines
of a small airplane, nothing tops the progression
of world records for time aloft with refueling.
In 1921 wing-walker Wesley May performed the
first known aerial refueling as a stunt. May, along
with pilots Frank Hawks and Earl Daugherty,
accomplished the feat by carrying a five-gallon
can of gasoline on his back as he moved from one
plane to the other.
The first practical aerial refueling took place on
June 23, 1923, when U.S. Army Air Service crews
transferred fuel via a hose between two Liberty
DH-4Bs flying from Rockwell Field in San Diego.
The next day’s mission allowed the receiver plane
to stay airborne for 23 hours and 48 minutes.
Then, on August 27-28, Captain Lowell Smith
and 1st Lt. John Paul Richter remained aloft for37 hours and 15 minutes with refueling, break-
ing the nonrefueled record of just over 36 hours.
Smith and Richter’s record held until June 1928,
when Adjutant Louis Crooy and Sergeant Victor
Groenen of Belgium stayed airborne for 60 hours,
seven minutes in a refueled de Havilland DH-9.
The most well-known early endurance flight
was that of the Army Air Service’s Atlantic-Fokker
C2A trimotor Question Mark, from January 1
through 7, 1929, over Van Nuys Airport in Cali-
fornia. Question Mark was crewed by Major Carl
Spatz (later changed to Spaatz), Captain Ira Eaker,
1st Lt. Harry Halverson, 2nd Lt. Elwood Quesada
and Sergeant Roy Hooe, all of whom would go
on to distinguished military careers. The men
remained in the air for 150 hours and 40 minutes.
Though the U.S. military did not pursue aerial
refueling at that time, the publicity surrounding
the flight prompted a rush among civilian pilots
to establish endurance records, with about 40
attempts made and four new records set in 1929.
Reginald Robbins and James Kelly departed
Meacham Field on May 19 in a Ryan B-1
Brougham monoplane christened Fort Worth.BEFORE THE ADVENT OF AERIAL REFUELING, FUEL
TANK CAPACITY WAS THE MAIN DETERMINING
FACTOR OF AN AIRPLANE’S ENDURANCE.
FILL ‘ER UP Captain
Lowell Smith and 1st
Lt. John Paul Richter
refuel their Liberty
DH-4B on their way
to a record nonstop
flight of more than 37
hours in August 1923.